


Passing Boundaries

by book_world



Series: Further [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Adventures, Alien Species, Anxiety, Bullying, Enterprise, Exploration, F/M, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Molesting, Mentions of dub-con, Missions, Romance, Science, Sexual Harrassment, Violence, further series, self-doubts, short missions, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:55:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29583372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/book_world/pseuds/book_world
Summary: Now that her time at the Academy is over, Carissa is a part of the Enterprise's crew and of the historical five-year-mission. Despite having looked forward to it, there are a lot of things she cannot have foreseen. But as it turns out not all unknown things in the depth of space are of an evil nature. Sequel to "Threshold of Space" which I recommend reading first
Relationships: Spock (Star Trek)/Original Female Character(s), Spock/OC
Series: Further [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050347
Kudos: 4





	1. Every Beginning is Hard

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first chapter of the second book in my series with Carissa. In order to understand this story, I recommend reading “Threshold of Space” first.   
> Have fun, enjoy the story and let me know what you think, pretty please
> 
> Trigger warning: Molesting at work

Carissa cracked her knuckles.

“What if your father doesn’t like me?” she asked her boyfriend

“What is making you believe this?”

“I don’t know… maybe he doesn’t want you to be with a human?” Spock raised an eyebrow and she couldn’t help but smile “Okay, I admit that’s stupid… after all he married a human as well” she tried to fan herself “God, I’m gonna die in this heat. You could have told me it’s gonna be that hot!”

“I did inform you that we were expecting temperatures of 39 degrees”

“That’s never 39 degrees!” she protested “What kind of winter do you have here?”

“Could it be that you assumed I was giving you the temperatures in Fahrenheit?”

“What? You didn’t?”

“No, I do not think too highly of this system”

“Oh God, you meant 39 degrees Celsius? Fuck, that’s like a hundred degrees Fahrenheit right?”

“102.2, to be exact. I thought you knew about the average temperatures on New Vulcan?”

“Yes I knew it is hot. It was never said it couldn’t get cold though. And you told me it was winter, so of course I assumed that 39 Fahrenheit could be correct” she crossed her arms “You’re always being super correct but then you just forget to add that you mean degree Celsius” she muttered “I wouldn’t have put this stupid jacket on”

“I thought it would be logical that I use the International System of Units and that you reached the conclusion that Vulcans would not live on a planet where temperatures can fall down to 3.88 degrees Celsius”

“Well forgive me the words but I’m sure your future self couldn’t find the ‘perfect’ planet that’s just like Vulcan”

“Would you prefer going back to the ship and change your clothing before we continue?”

“Yes!” she huffed “Otherwise I’m gonna die. And no, I don’t want to hear a comment about how it would probably take at least two days until I could die from the heat”

“Technically it would…”

“I said no comment”

“Carissa, is something bothering you? Have I done something to upset you?”

“I-I don’t know…. I’m just nervous, you know…”

“If meeting my father causes you uncomfortableness you do not have to feel obliged to accompany me”

“But you already announced that you’d introduce me”

“I am sure he will understand if I tell him that you have changed your mind”

“Actually… I do want to meet him” he nodded and called the Enterprise and shortly after they were beamed back aboard. “Will you wait here until I come back?”

“I will” she nodded and hurried to her quarters to put on something lighter and returned only clad in a top and shorts.

“Okay, let’s go” she said as she arrived back in the transporter room and stepped onto the pad beside Spock. They were beamed back at the place where they had left and continued their way to Sarek’s house “It’s still way to hot but at least I’m not dying anymore”

“I doubt you were passing away earlier”

“It felt like that” she defended herself

“Seeing as you have experience with dying I cannot say whether your comparison is accurate”

“Wow that sounds weird… I have experience with dying” she giggled. Finally, they arrived at the settlement where Spock’s father lived and searched for his house. When she felt the looks of the other Vulcans on her, she edged closer to her boyfriend, suddenly feeling as if she shouldn’t be here.

“Carissa, is something causing you discomfort?”

“I uh… she glanced around and leaned closer “They’re staring”

“I am aware” he admitted quietly “and I have to admit that I do not approve of it either”

“Do you think they’ll look away if I poke out my tongue at them?” she joked

“No, I am certain this would only have the opposite effect”

“Damn” she muttered “But if one of them dares to… I don’t know make fun of me or whatever I’ll so tell them off” he looked at her but said nothing. Somehow it did surprise her that they made it to Sarek’s house without any kind of unwanted confrontation which probably only was the case because Vulcans were so peaceful and intelligent. Not that all the judging looks didn’t annoy her but she was almost used to them. Spock’s father opened the door and Carissa did her best not to smile and formed a Vulcan greeting with her hand, which she had practiced quite a lot in the past few hours. But suddenly she forgot what she wanted to say “Hi uh, g-good afternoon” she stuttered out and for once she wished that Spock would be the one talking. Which he did after he noticed Carissa looking at him and introduced her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, sir” she said and could have hit herself when she realized that she made a little courtesy.

“The pleasure is all mine, as humans would say” she couldn’t help but smile. Luckily, they were told to enter and once they sat down at a table she felt a bit better. Although everything in her wanted to touch her boyfriend she didn’t because she was afraid his father would disapprove of this. Suddenly, she could comprehend how Spock must have felt when he met her parents for the first time. Although, now the most embarrassing thing was the silence. Finally, Sarek said something “My son has mentioned you in a few of our conversations but he did not tell me much about you”

“Well, I’m from a dullsville in Colorado, about two hours and half an hour from Denver and my parents are called Henry and Rachel. My Dad owns a small restaurant that’s directly next to our house and he inherited it from his own parents. I don’t have siblings and I went to elementary school and high school at the same school in my town. Then I made an internship in a kindergarten for a year because I considered becoming a teacher. Okay, not a whole year because I realized that it wasn’t my thing and left. Then I worked in my parent’s restaurant before I was accepted to Starfleet Academy when I was twenty. My major was exobiology and now I work on the Enterprise as biologist in the lab. I really like reading, watching movies or sometimes cooking or sometimes I also like to draw or design something. Though I mostly only did this before. I also love learning new things” she gave a shrug “Not very spectacular, I know”

“I think that working in a kindergarten is an interesting choice”

“Oh well it’s kinda fun. But the kids were such brats. There also were a few nice one of course though. Spock has once told me that you have something like a kindergarten on Vulcan though?”

“That is correct. My wife was a teacher and has tried to find work in one of those institution. But they would not have employed her even if she had had the qualifications”

“Oh” she said “I didn’t know that. And although I can see the sense behind this decision… I still think it’s mean. I mean if someone’s qualified they should be able to get said job somewhere, unless no new worker is needed right at the moment” she shrugged, suddenly feeling a lot better. Talking to Sarek now felt almost naturally and she wasn’t even nervous anymore. Which didn’t mean she didn’t choose her words carefully.

“I am almost surprised how similar your thought patterns are to Amanda’s”

“Your wife?” she asked, feeling surprised as well “Well the reason for this could be that I read somewhere that men tend to search a partner who reminds them of their mother, whereas the woman is looking for a man who reminds her of her father. At least among humans”

“Your statement seems logical. Would you say that you have seen your father in my son?”

“Well… now that I think of it, my father’s rather calm and withheld too. Yet it’s obvious he cares about me. I’d almost say that Spock’s and my dynamic is similar to those of my parents. My Mum often seems on edge and definitely is the louder one and my Dad is in the back, rolling his eyes at her”

“Although I have never thought about this, it appears that you are right” Spock agreed. Carissa smiled and shifted a tiny bit closer to him

\- oO0Oo -

Time flew by and almost too soon for Carissa’s liking they had to leave because Ambassador Spock had invited them to his place for dinner as soon as he heard they would be coming to New Vulcan. Once they left the house, Carissa was very relieved and was grinning and almost dancing beside her boyfriend as they were on their way to the ambassador’s house. Somehow she now didn’t even care that the other Vulcans were staring at her and she only offered them a grin, what made most of them look away. But as she saw that Spock seemed not so amused she instantly tried to calm down. 

“Sorry” she mumbled and looked down.

“You do not need to apologize” he said “I can understand that you are feeling relief” she smiled 

“I am. And I’m really looking forward to meeting Ambassador Spock” 

“I am anticipating the meeting as well” she nodded and placed her hand on his lower arm

“You can tell me if you’d rather I don’t touch you now and here. Not that your friends think we’re doing something improper”

“I can assure you that most of them are certainly not my friends” 

“Oh okay” although she wanted to know how he meant it, she didn’t dig in further. Suddenly they were approached by a Vulcan who was holding hands the Vulcan way with a female. 

“I had not believed to ever see you again, Spock” he said in a tone Carissa didn’t really like “As I can see you have taken yourself a human mate, as your father did. Was it because no Vulcan has wished you to be a part of their family? Or were you perhaps attempting to find a suitable replacement for your deceased mother?” she glanced up at Spock who obviously was not happy at all. She decided to distract the other Vulcan a little and play dumb.

“Hello” she said and held out his hand towards him “My name is Carissa, you must be one of my boyfriend’s old friends?” she felt Spock’s hand on her upper arm, gently pulling her slightly closer to him. 

“I would not ever wish to be your traitor’s friend” Carissa shrugged 

“Okay, my bad” she pulled back her hand and she looked at Spock “Let’s go, it doesn’t seem like he wants to talk to us although he’s the one who talked to us first…. I don’t see the logic behind that” she grinned

“I merely will not talk to an ignorant human” her heat shot back at him 

“Excuse me?” she hissed, feeling rage inside her

“I suppose I forgot that humans cannot hear as well as us. Or does it have to do with your limited knowledge and intelligence perhaps? Shall I repeat my words?” 

“I heard you fucking right, you bastard” she put her hands on her hips “And I may don’t know exactly what’s going on here but it does seem like you’re bullying him” she looked back to her boyfriend 

“Carissa…” he started but she cut him off

“Oh no, you let me talk to him” she turned back to the other Vulcan and crossed her arms “I don’t know why you’re bullying him but there are usually two reasons for that. Either because you’re a sadist who enjoys to make other suffer or because you’re jealous. Now I’m asking you; what’s better? Admitting that you, as a Vulcan, enjoy disturbing peace and attacking someone verbally or that my boyfriend is better than you? I do believe someone’s in for quite some mediation tonight” she glared at him. “In either case you are acting out of emotion and I bet you’re even too proud to admit that. Though proud is another emotion so it appears like you’re quite the sentimental one, aren’t you? So maybe next time, before you say something you should consider your words because I believe you are clever enough for at least that. Now, I suppose I made you angry and that you will retort something anyway without thinking logically, so Spock and I will demonstrate the idiom ‘the wiser head gives in’ and leave you alone to your well-needed thoughts… but before I forget it, we humans have some kind of salute for people like you” she held up her middle finger at him before she pulled Spock with her.

“I would not have expected you to give him a lecture such as this” she chuckled

“He deserved it. No one talks shit about my friends or me and gets away with it” she shook her head “Not on my watch. Do you think he knows what the gesture means?”

“I doubt he knows the meaning but he certainly knew that it is an insult”

“Yeah. It means as much as asshole”

“I am aware”

“Really?” she glanced at him “because people showed it to you when you came to Earth?”

“No, Carissa” there was a tiny quirk in his eyebrow that told her he was amused “I know the gesture because I have made use of it in my youth on Vulcan”

“You walked around showing people the middle finger?”

“Not entirely. However, I wanted to inform you that I was quite impressed by the speech you have given him”

“Oh yeah, I just said stuff that came through my mind”

“Yet your words are the truth”

“Hm, even better. Now he’s also got to deal with the fact that a human cut him down to size” he raised an eyebrow “It’s an idiom, that means as much as ‘to tell someone off and show him his place’” she translated.

“I believe you did” she nodded

“But why…. I mean what has he against you?”

“I do not wish to talk about this topic now”

“Oh, okay” she gave another nod and they walked in silence until they reached the house of the ambassador. All of a sudden, Carissa started to feel a little nervous about seeing the older version of her boyfriend again. After all she had never seen him together with her boyfriend and feared he could get somewhat jealous of his future self. The door opened and after greeting the ambassador, she took the Commander’s hand and intertwined their fingers.

“Please, come in” they were invited and stepped inside. It was bigger than Sarek’s home, yet just as scarcely furnitured. They took a seat at a table and the older Vulcan placed a drink in front of them all. She eyed hers with a frown, then looked what her boyfriend had gotten, obviously the same as his future self.

“What’s this?” she asked, pointing at her drink

“I recommend you give it a try. I am certain that you will find its taste likeable” their host said, amusement audible in his voice. With a shrug, Carissa did as he said and was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a lot like very sweet iced tea and smiled.

“You’re right. I like it” she felt the younger man’s gaze on her and then he explained what it was that she was drinking. Before the ambassador got a chance to get up and serve the meal, Carissa got up and offered to do so

“Since I am a guest too, it would only be appropriate if I help her” the younger Spock said as he stood up as well “I am sure that we can manage on our own” he told his future self when he wanted to get up as well. Carissa was staring at the cupboards in the meantime, not knowing where she could find the dishes. Before she made a decision, her boyfriend was beside her, let his eyes wander over every cupboard, then opened one and handed her three bowls.

“Oh” she “How did you know they’re here? Did you ask yourself where you would put the cooking utensils and hope your older self had the same thoughts?”

“Correct” he opened a drawer and retrieved cutlery. Carissa held out her bowls towards him and he placed it inside before she went back to the table to set it. Shortly after, the Vulcan returned with a pan and a pot which he placed in the middle of the table. While they were eating, the ambassador told them a bit more about New Vulcan and how they were still adapting. She still couldn’t believe all that had happened two and half a year ago and also recalled that so much had happened to her in that time as well. Suddenly, Spock’s communicator beeped and from what Carissa heard, the Captain wanted him to come because someone had requested that they came to officially introduce themselves on the planet. And of course Jim wanted to have Spock with him for that, given his heritage. Before he left, however, he handed the communicator to his girlfriend, who looked at him with a frown. He got up, thanked his future self for the hospitality and left.

“What was that for?” she asked, glancing at the communicator. “Does he think something could happen to me? Maybe because… you’ve lost ‘your’ Carissa and could lose me too?”

“I doubt this is what he had in mind. I daresay I might be the person he would trust most with you”

“And why then?”

“He must know that I was planning to show you around on New Vulcan and he does not want you to be bothered by one of our people”

“Oh, that already happened” she said and told him what had happened on their way to his house “I bet he’s not super happy right now” she chuckled at the end “But maybe he’ll actually learn something from it” he looked almost amused

“I have not realized that you have changed that much since our last meeting”

“Well, a lot has happened… I don’t know how much he told you but we broke up, then there was this story with Marcus and Khan, Oliver and his stupid uncle and these scientists that abducted him, my gradation and the start of the mission” she gave a shrug.

“I have not heard about these incidents, apart from the issue with Khan and the five-year mission”

“Okay. As far as I remember you have been on that five-year mission in your time as well, right?”

“We have”

“Was that when you met… your Carissa?”

“I have known her before as she has been assigned to the Enterprise upon her graduation as well. But only when we went onto the mission did I get to know her better” she nodded. 

“Was she in the science department as well? I mean… sure she was but did she work in the biology lab?”

“Indeed, she did”

“Can I ask how you got together?”

“You may” he told her of an incident where the whole bridge crew, including her alternate self (who had just come there to deliver a report) where abducted to a planet because an energy being wanted them to bear him company. Apparently, this Carissa totally lost it when said being started flirting with her and claimed that she was dating the Captain, who instantly played along. Once they all were back in safety, Spock and Carissa, who had been friends at that time had quite a lengthy conversation in which they admitted their feelings for the other.

“Oh I see. It was a bit more… stupid for us” she let out a giggle and told him how she had been almost killed during an engineering test and then got a tranquilizer which she didn’t need and started to hit on Spock who had been her professor at the time. “But somehow I’m glad that happened… I mean we probably would have gotten together eventually… sometime on the mission…” she shrugged “But I’d probably be dead if we hadn’t been a couple” she told him how Spock was the one who made sure she was reassigned to the Enterprise to have an eye on her for the mission on Vulcan and therefore saved her from death. At the memory she couldn’t help but smile “God that were times… it’s been ages since he did something behind my back because he was trying to protect me. Did you know he didn’t even assign me to a ship in the beginning? It was another instructor who assigned me in the first place” he raised an eyebrow. They finished their meal and then left the house because the ambassador wanted to show her around a little.

After about three hours, Carissa started to wonder where her boyfriend was because she had a feeling that it couldn’t mean something good if the meeting with the Vulcans took them this long. Or maybe he had just returned to the ship afterwards. Suddenly, the communicator beeped and Scotty informed her that the people who had been at said meeting had returned to the ship and asked if she wanted to be beamed back aboard too now since everyone who had went down on the planet was back already.

“Oh. Give me a moment” she looked at the ambassador “It sounds like they want me back on the ship…”

“I understand” she nodded and told Scotty that she had to say goodbye first and would inform him when she was ready to be beamed back on board. Then she turned back to the Vulcan and shrugged

“Thank you for everything. It was great” she said and formed a Vulcan greeting with her right hand whereupon Spock only raised his hand

“If you allow, your counterpart has showed me a human gesture called ‘high five’” Carissa smiled, not quite believing her ears

“She did? And you well… agreed to do this?”

“I have, although I still fail to see the sense behind it”

“Hm well… it is a bit odd for a couple, unless you’ve achieved something and it’s not really a greeting. But hey, maybe I’ll manage to get my boyfriend to do the same” she chuckled as she took the ambassador up on his offer for a high five with a broad smile. After they bid each other goodbye and he wished them an exciting and successful five year mission, they parted ways and Carissa asked Scotty to come back onto the ship. The man asked her a few questions about how it was and she said she just looked around a bit and talked to someone, not wanting to tell him the truth about her relationship just yet. Although Spock had never said that he didn’t want the others to know she still had a feeling that he preferred it if less people knew. “I think I’ve gotta bring that back to the bridge” she finally said, holding up the communicator Spock had given her

“Ah sure” he nodded “See ye”

“Sure” she nodded and left for the bridge with a smile. Somehow she felt strange when she stepped into the bridge, as if she shouldn’t be here, so she just wanted to hand the communicator back and leave again, but Jim stopped her with a question

“How was the trip?”

“Hot. But nice” she said and glanced at her boyfriend who didn’t even pay attention to her. Not that she minded though “May I ask how your meeting went?”

“Boring and tedious…” he rolled his eyes “It’s even bad enough to be around one Vulcan, let alone a whole council of them. And hey, they didn’t seem very pleased that we’re here and requested us to leave within the next twelve hours if we had no important business or reason to be here”

“Oh okay. Does that mean we’re leaving?”

“Yup, we don’t want to anger them, now do we?” when Carissa turned around she saw that her boyfriend looked at them but said nothing before he turned back to his screen.

\- oO0Oo -

There was a lot for her to do in the following weeks since they had a lot of data and samples to test that came from different planets. Besides, since she was new, she and Benedict were supervised quite a lot by the Head of the laboratory, Zacharias Duncan. She had never liked it when someone was looking over her shoulder as she worked because it made her feel watched and she couldn’t truly focus. Besides this wasn’t all. Sometimes she had the feeling that this wasn’t just about watching her work but watching her in general. There were days where he just couldn’t take his eyes off her. Plus, he often got a bit too close for her liking or touched her when she didn’t find it exactly necessary. Although she approached the topic and told him it made her uncomfortable it didn’t stop. In contrary, it seemed like it encouraged him to do more and his hand even started wandering below her waist at times. At this, she told him that he had to stop because she wasn’t interested in him and had a boyfriend.

One evening, she was the last person in the laboratory because they had an experiment running and someone had to supervise it until everything was over and she volunteered to do so. If everything went according to plan, she would be finished in a bit more than an hour and could end her day of work. And since she had to stay here anyway, she wanted to do some work. As a compensation she could leave earlier on the following day.

Suddenly the door to the laboratory opened and she had to bite back a groan when Zacharias entered and took a seat beside her

“Did you volunteer to watch the experiment?”

“It would seem so” she said “What are you doing here?”

“I need to finish a report and I thought four eyes on the experiment are better than two. It’s already late after all” she shrugged and focused on her work again.

“Okay” she didn’t tell him she’d rather if he had chosen another seat.

“Besides, then you don’t feel so lonely” he chuckled and she winced when she felt his hand on her lower back. She shifted and bit her lip, soon wishing she had said something because she felt his hand slip under her shirt.

“Don’t touch me” she said, glaring at him. He pulled his hand away and placed it on her arm instead

“Sorry. I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable”

“Way to go” she mumbled puller her arm away a little but the hand remained. “I said don’t touch me” she hissed and now yanked her arm away and looked into his eyes “I swear to God if you touch me ever again, I will report this” he chuckled

“We both know you wouldn’t to that… you’re too shy and dear. And I doubt you’d be taken serious anyway”

“Somehow you seem pretty confident of yourself”

“I’m just giving you the facts. I’ve been working quite closely with the Chief Science Officer since I’m the Head of the laboratory, which means he knows me quite well. Besides I don’t even want something from you… I just hope we can be friends. Outside work”

“A bit more than friends” she mumbled, looking away from him “And I’ve got no idea why you can’t understand how your advances are making me uncomfortable. Especially when you know that I have a boyfriend”

“What I’m doing has got nothing to do with this”

“Then please respect the fact that it makes me uncomfortable. So get away from me”

“What if I don’t?” she didn’t say anything and got up herself, getting another seat for herself. Somehow she was a bit surprised that he didn’t follow her and she found herself smiling.

\- oO0Oo -

But she should have known that this was far from over. The following day Zach held her back when she finished work for the day and left the lab. He grabbed her wrist and called her name. She suppressed a sigh

“I’m allowed to leave early. As you have seen yourself I stayed until the experiment was done, so I can leave earlier today, as agreed.” she tore her hand away and crossed her arms.

“And that’s not something I wanted to scold you about I wanted to apologize for my behavior… would you like to have dinner with me today? Or sometime this week?”

“Uh… I don’t know” she said, not daring to say no and squeezed her eyes shut “I mean you don’t see this as a date, right?”

“Depends on what you’d like” he smiled and placed a hand on her upper arm

“Look, I don’t see how you can’t know what the words ‘I have a boyfriend’ mean”

“But he isn’t here, is he?”

“And you thinks that gives you the right to… do this?”

“He has to accept the fact that you might move on in the years to come”

“Even if that was my plan… I certainly wouldn’t cheat on him now already.” and most definitely not with you, she thought “Now, I’ve got stuff to do”

“But you’re done with work”

“Yeah. And I’ve got a private life”

“So you don’t have anything to do?”

“I’m not going out with you if that’s what you’re hoping for…”

“Come on, just one time”

“Please, just leave me alone. Bedsides you still are at work until 1730 hours”

“Can’t you give me an answer?”

“Look, if you keep insisting it’s still gonna be no”

“At first you just said you didn’t know”

“Then I didn’t know you wanted it to be a date… I can’t see how you’re too stupid to understand that I’m not interested at all!” before she knew it, he had her pressed against a wall

“Don’t ever call me stupid again, sweetheart” she felt his breath on her neck and wished she could lean back, away from him.

“Let me go” she hissed

“Sooner or later I will get what I want” he whispered in her ear “You’d do yourself a favor if you didn’t put your foot down”

“I’ve got every goddamn right to defend myself. I told you one too many times that I want you to leave me alone. And if you ever touch me again, I will report you”

“If you had the courage to do so, you probably would have done it long ago. Because you already threatened me to do so three times… Unless, of course, you do enjoy this”

“Let me go” she growled, trying to push him away.

“What if I don’t?”

“Like I said… I will fucking report you”

“And like I said, no one would ever believe you. It’s your word against mine. Besides, do you really think the Commander would care? He surely doesn’t even know what this is all about”

“If I just tell him that this is about sexual harassment at work he’ll find a according law that forbids it within seconds” she retorted.

“Oh you think this is sexual harassment?”

“And what is it in your opinion?”

“Getting to know you”

“Well done, you totally did everything right. That’s how I get to know others too. By pressing them against a wall and threatening them” he smirked

“I can do more than just that” he grinded his hips against hers and she sucked in a sharp breath before she kneed him in the groin. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I could ask you the same thing” she spat when she slipped away from him, using his distraction.

“You’re gonna regret this! Mark my words, I will get what I want” he yelled after her as she ran away “And if you think that reporting this will help you’re wrong! They’ll never ever listen to you” despite everything she still chuckled, knowing he definitely was wrong. Because she knew that his shift on the bridge was over, she made her way towards the rooms the bridge crew used as offices or conference rooms at times, knowing that her boyfriend definitely would have found something else he could work on in his office, a report probably. When she knocked at the door to his office, she heard Spock’s voice from inside, telling her to come in. He seemed surprised when he recognized her.

“Hi” she greeted and smiled “Long time no see” in fact she had only shortly seen him three times in the past weeks, when he came to the lab to deliver or collect something “I mean when we actually talked to each other” he agreed, told her it was good to see her and asked what she wanted. “I uh…” she looked down, suddenly not feeling too sure about this anymore

“You seem like there is something bothering you” he remarked and she nodded, cracking her knuckles

“There is… It’s about Zacharias Duncan, my-my superior. He-he’s well… kind of… making strange remarks and well… advances towards me lately” he raised any eyebrow

“How exactly would you define ‘strange’?”

“Molesting?” she said quietly and looked down again before glancing at him quickly. For a while he was silent then contacted the bio lab.

“This is Commander Spock. I demand to see Lieutenant Duncan in my office on deck 6 immediately” he told the Ensign who answered. Again she found herself smiling, Zach surely hadn’t calculated with that.

“He’s currently not in the lab. I don’t know exactly where he went”

“Then please make sure he gets my message as soon as possible”

“What’s this about?”

“That is nothing I shall discus+s with you” Carissa instantly knew he was beyond pissed.

“I’ll see that I find him” the woman said and Spock ended the communication before he turned to Carissa and got up.

“Has he hurt you?”

“No” she mumbled and stepped closer to wrap her arms around him. When he pressed her against his body in a comforting manner, she felt herself calming down and buried her face in his chest.

“I understand this must be difficult for you but I would appreciate if you told me everything that has happened”

“Do you mean ‘officially’ as in what will be put in the report or ‘unofficially’ like what I’d only tell you as my boyfriend?” she looked at him

“The decision is up to you” she swallowed

“It wasn’t too bad in the beginning and it took me some days to realize what exactly he was doing” she told him what had happened in the past weeks and he listened quietly.

“I fail to understand why you have tolerated such a behavior over weeks”

“Believe me… somehow I’m asking myself the same thing… Maybe I have hoped he’d stop eventually because he would realize that it’s of no use? I-I just didn’t want to make mountains out of molehills”

“I doubt a mole would be able to create…”

“It’s a saying, Spock. It means that someone doesn’t want to display something small as something bigger or worse”

“What has made you think these incidents were of little importance?”

“As I said… it didn’t start too bad. Today was the worst, actually. And-and I didn’t want to bother you” he placed his hands on her shoulders

“Carissa, I doubt you could ever bother me. Particularly not if your welfare is concerned. As First Officer it is one of my tasks to ensure the wellbeing of the crew, meaning that I am a focal point for any kind of conflict that may occur between members of the crew”

“I know and understand that this is your job… but you know me, I’m always waiting and seeing what happens or if I’m able to do something myself before I get help”

“Then please promise me to refrain from doing so in the future when your wellbeing is concerned and come to me directly if something occurs.” she smiled

“Okay, I’ll try”

“In return I promise you to do everything necessary to protect you”

“Thanks” she looked up and pecked his jaw “God you can’t believe how much I’ve missed spending time with you in the past weeks” she mumbled, leaning her cheek against his shoulder.

“Maybe you would like to do so once the matter with Lieutenant Duncan is resolved?”

“You mean today?” she didn’t wait for his answer and nodded “I’d love to. Unless… you’ve got a lot to do. No wait you probably don’t because if you had you wouldn’t have asked” she corrected, nudging the tip of his nose with her forefinger “After all I’ve already known you for quite some time and know that probing into something is unnecessary because otherwise you wouldn’t have said anything” he raised an eyebrow and removed her hand from his face, intertwining their fingers instead. “But what do you want to do? Go to the rec room? Or do you prefer us being alone?”

“I believe it would be preferable…” there was a knock at the door and he let go of her after pecking her forehead “Come in” he said as he took a seat again at the other side of the desk.

“You wanted to see me?” Zach said upon entering and his eyes fell onto Carissa. There was some kind of shock in his eyes and she solely grinned at him.

“Indeed. I take it, you already know the reason I have summoned you?”

“Well… maybe because you want to discuss how she’s doing at work? She’s new after all and I’m her superior and see her daily. It must be time for her probation appraisal”

“Not quite” he looked at Carissa “Junior Lieutenant, if you may?” she swallowed

“I uh… I have warned you that I will report this and yet you didn’t listen”

“Report what? Have you been doing extra work again? I told you could compensate everything you do out of working hours”

“You know exactly what I’m speaking of” she growled “Your advances”

“Oh that…” he turned to Spock “It’s really nothing. I have asked her out and she overreacted because I placed a hand on her shoulder and called me a pervert and all”

“Your statement is not consistent with what the Junior Lieutenant has informed me about”

“And you just believe her?”

“As you might know, I can tell if someone is telling the truth or not and Junior Lieutenant Wiley’s testimony seemed thoroughly genuine. Which is something I cannot profess for yours”

“So what? She got worked up about this, surely because she thinks whatever she has told you is the truth, which isn’t the case”

“Do you deny pressing her against a wall earlier that day and threatening her?”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about” Spock got up and crossed his arms. Carissa instantly took a step back, sensing he was about to burst with anger. At least for Vulcan standards.

“I have ways to… jog your memory- if I remember the idiom correctly- but this is something I would prefer not to”

“Okay, good, I did grab her but only because she insulted me. I didn’t threaten her in a way you might think, I just told her it could have consequences because I’m her superior.”

“Speaking of consequences… has she not informed you about her relationship?”

“She has mentioned a boyfriend, yes”

“Then may I ask why you continued your advances?”

“Well… it’s not like this boyfriend would ever know. He has to accept the fact that she might move on during the time she is gone”

“That is incorrect. Her boyfriend does know about these incidents and I assure you that he is, as humans would say, fuming” although she had suspected it, she was surprised that he admitted it just like that.

“So what? He’s on earth and can’t get to me”

“Are you saying you think his absence and therefore his incapability to hold you justify your deeds?”

“Of course not but nothing what I did was wrong”

“I am careful to point out that lying to me will make this matter worse for you because I will hold you responsible for this as well”

“Even if she was right… where’s the proof?”

“Technically we don’t need proof” Carissa said “If the Captain thinks it’s true you’re fired anyway…”

“Oh sure, let’s just go and bother the Captain with this”

“If you do not cooperate you will leave us no choice but to do so” Spock said.

“Of course there’s a choice… you could dig into this deeper and find out that I am the one who is right”

“Or the contrary and we will ascertain that the Junior Lieutenant was correct and that you have been lying. Which is why I shall give you another chance to tell the truth” he looked at him expectantly.


	2. Settling Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: attempted sexual assault (and mentions of it)

“I’m not gonna admit something just because she claims I did it” to her surprise, Spock only raised an eyebrow, then contacted the Captain and told him what was going on.

“I see. Molesting and now he’s refusing to cooperate. Send them to me, I’ll take over. Thank you for letting me know” Zach rolled his eyes

“Look, Carissa, I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable but that’s a bit out of your league here, don’t you think?”

“Why would it? The Captain has offered to take over himself…” she wasn’t even sure if he knew that this was about her. After all Spock had only mentioned Zach’s name and that it was about one of his lab workers. Somehow she did feel a bit weird because she hadn’t wanted that much attention for everything. But she couldn’t have known Zach would behave like this. On the other hand, she could have known he wouldn’t just admit everything. Spock told them to follow and brought them to the Captain’s office. Jim’s mien dropped further when he saw her entering. So he probably hadn’t known it was her. He switched off his PADD and turned to them.

“Anyone volunteering to tell me what exactly has happened?” he asked, crossing his arms

“She overreacted a little when I asked her out and touched her. She insulted me so I grabbed her and told her to choose her words carefully because they could have consequences. When she said she was gonna report this, I told her to calm down but she freaked out completely”

“Is that your version as well?” Carissa was asked

“It’s a part truth. He played everything down, Sir”

“For example?” she shrugged and told him what exactly had happened today “I see”

“Captain, as I said, she got all worked up about this and she kept yelling at me about a boyfriend and all”

“Did you?” he asked Carissa “You told him that you have a boyfriend?”

“Of course I did. Multiple times. Because that today wasn’t the first incident” she briefly told him about his previous advances

“And why didn’t you inform someone then already?”

“I uhm….”

“See? She’s lying because no one would keep such a thing to themselves”

“There are people who have issues with talking about such things” Jim said “And she is one of them”

“How do you know? Wait, do you know her?”

“Of course I know her. She’s a member of my crew, I met her for the interview, I had her at the tryout and I personally told her she’s got the job… And we’ve been on two missions before we started this journey”

“And who tells me you’re not just believing her because you already knew her and… what do I know, care for her?”

“Of course I care about her but I never said I believe her. To be honest, a part of me doesn’t even want to because I don’t want such a thing to happen on my ship!”

“Then I can assure you that it didn’t”

“Tell me, what would she gain from lying to me? Because I know her well enough to know that if she wanted to hurt you, you must have done something much worse that she hates you that much… and I doubt that this is how she chooses to get revenge.”

“What do I know…how do you even know her so well? I start to believe that you’re biased, Captain”

“Hey, wow” he said, raising his hands in defense “The only reason Carissa is on this ship is because her grades and records are splendid and she did very well at the tryout”

“Wasn’t she the one who saved your First Officer?”

“Indeed” Carissa winced at the voice of her boyfriend and turned around to see him standing beside the door. She hadn’t thought he would stay. On the other hand, she could understand that he wanted to listen, after all this was about her.

“So isn’t that the reason she was chosen?”

“No, this action only made her Junior Lieutenant, which is something Starfleet Command decided. I chose her because she is indeed good, I mean her grades are over… wait, why am I even discussing this with you?” he crossed his arms and glared at him. “Back to the issue. I think you are keeping something from us and I think this is the part that is consistent with what she has told me”

“Even if she thinks of this in such a manner, I can assure you that it was never my plan to intimidate her or make her feel uncomfortable”

“But you did know she has a boyfriend, right?”

“She mentioned having one on multiple occasions, yes”

“So you admit there were multiple occasions where you bothered her?”

“Of course not. I meant she mentioned it during breaks or so, when we spent time together as colleagues”

“That is a lie, Lieutenant” Spock said.

“Even if it was, there is no proof I have done this. It’s her word against mine!”

“Well bad for you I don’t actually need proof to put an end to this. You have admitted you bothered her today and I will not have that happen again. Lieutenant, you are herewith transferred to the biochemistry lab and I’ll give you an official warning. Next time something happens, you’re gone” he looked at Carissa “Junior Lieutenant, if he tries to start other advances I want you to inform my First Officer or me on the spot”

“Understood, Captain” she nodded and had to pull herself together not to smile

“But-but the biochemistry lab has another head, Sir”

“Of course they do”

“That’s a demotion”

“Not an official one. But it can become one of you don’t behave” he glared at the man “You may leave. Commander, a quick word” Zach left the room and Carissa followed him a couple of seconds later, not wanting to walk into him right now. Before she left she placed a hand on her boyfriend’s arm “I’ll wait in the other office” she said and did so.

\- oO0Oo -

Once the Vulcan was back from the Captain’s office, he asked if Carissa still wanted to spend time with him.

“Sure. But if you want to finish something first I can just wait here. Or if you want to… I don’t know finish your sentence or the part you’re working at right now. After all I must have interrupted you somewhere and I usually need to find a good point where I can finish and start easily the next time. And what I just said probably didn’t make much sense” she chuckled.

“I do not know the problem you have tried to describe as I can resume to my work no matter where I have stopped”

“Oh that’s good. And you basically already stopped then so yea… what shall we do? Or better said, where?”

“Before Lieutenant Duncan has arrived I have tried to tell you that I think it is best if we headed to my quarters”

“Sure, let’s go”

After three rounds of chess (which she all lost, despite the advantages she was granted) he told her a bit more about the away missions they had had on planets so far. She frowned and was a little worried when she heard that the landing party had almost been killed twice and they actually had lost a security officer once. It was already late when she decided it was better if she left to get enough sleep. To her surprise, Spock offered to accompany her to her quarters and she squeezed his arm when they arrived

“Thanks for bringing me here. Hope to see you around”

“That would indeed be appealing” she smiled and gave his arm a last squeeze before she let go of him to enter her quarters. She couldn’t help but grin broadly, happy to have seen him again after such a long time. She took off her uniform shirt and walked to her bed where her night-top lay and dropped the piece of clothing she had just worn on the nightstand. When she was about to pull her night shirt over her head, someone grabbed her from behind. In the first second she thought that her boyfriend had returned but when a hand clasped her mouth she knew it had to be someone else. Although it wouldn’t be Spock’s style to sneak up on her and just touch her. In panic, she tried to break free but to no avail

“I told you it was gonna have consequences” her attacker whispered in her ear. It was Zach. Of course, she could have foreseen that. But she definitely hadn’t thought he’d try to get back at her this quickly. In fact, she had almost forgotten about what had happened earlier that day. She closed her eyes and tried to elbow him in the groin but she must have hit his hip. “I told you I’m gonna get what I want and since you saw to it that I lost my job, I’ll make sure you lose something else” His hand was on her stomach and she hated herself for not having been quicker at putting on a new shirt. On the other hand, a shirt wouldn’t have hindered him in any way. Again she struggled to get free, then tried to bite his hand that she could scream for help but nothing worked “You can try all you want. We’re not going anywhere until I say we’re done” there was something wet on her shoulder and she didn’t even want to look. Shortly after he bit her roughly and she gasped in pain. She rammed her heel onto his foot repeatedly hoping it would help her to break free. But all she achieved was that he kicked the back of her leg and painfully twisted her wrist “Don’t try that again” he hissed. Tears were burning in her eyes and she just deiced to scream or make loud sounds because he couldn’t stop her from doing that by just covering her mouth. Unfortunately, that didn’t please him either and he dragged her to the wall and kissed her instead. She tried to break away but his grip was too strong. Instead she hit her shoe against the wall, hoping it would upset her neighbor sooner or later and make him come over to protest. As if her prayers had been heard, the door opened only seconds later and finally Zach pulled away from her

“Help me!” she screamed, not wasting a second. When she looked to the door she only saw her boyfriend running towards them and yanking the man away from her, sending him to the ground with a forceful hit to the face. Carissa pressed herself against the wall, trying to get as far away from the scene as possible. She winced when Zach got back up but not much later, Spock had a hand at his throat.

“I will not allow you to get any closer to her” he warned in a tone that made her shiver and made a mental note to never piss off a Vulcan.

“Or what?” her attacker sneered “Not like you’d have the bones to hurt someone. Especially not a crewmember. Besides, you’re not even allowed to do this, so you definitely won’t do anything”

“Your statement is not quite correct. I may not be able to hold you responsible the way I wish as a Commander and First Officer. However, as Carissa’s boyfriend I should make you pay”

“B-boy-boyfriend?” Zach stammered

“Oh, have I forgotten to mention who I am dating?” Carissa said, having recovered from the first shock.

“But why on earth…” he didn’t get any further because the Vulcan took him out with a nerve pinch. She breathed out in relief and when he turned around to her, she staggered forward and fell round his neck, suddenly feeling tears in her eyes again. For about five seconds he just stood there, then he gently placed a hand on the back of her head.

“He will no longer be any danger to you” he said quietly as he carefully started to caress her head. “You are trembling” she didn’t know if this was because she didn’t wear a top or because of the shock

“Oh” nevertheless she broke away to retrieve the night shirt she wanted to put on minutes before and did it now, then rubbing her lower right arm. In the meantime, Spock had called two security guards here that they took Zach to the brig. She looked at him “I-I guess we should inform the Captain and get working on the report or whatever?” much to her surprise he disagreed.

“There will be sufficient time for this tomorrow. Tonight I will not be responsible of this case, my only duty is to you, as your boyfriend” she couldn’t help but smile and wrapped her arms around him again.

“Thank you.” she leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed

“Has he hurt you?”

“No” she said “It’s just the shock I guess” gently, he hugged her back and pulled her closer

“Once Lieutenant Duncan has been taken to the brig I would deem it wise to have you examined in the medical bay”

“Oh. Does that have to be today? I don’t think they’ll find anything. He only bit me a bit” she just didn’t want to tell the doctors the story. It would be enough if everyone else on the ship got word of what had happened once Zach was gone.

“I would advise to do it today but in case you need time I understand and respect your decision” she gave a slight nod and sighed again. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Not really. Just stay with me. Especially when I am going to bed”

“You will not sleep here tonight” she looked up

“Are you dragging me to Sickbay anyway?”

“No, as I have said I respect your wish to undergo the examination tomorrow. However, you certainly will feel much safer in my quarters for the night”

“But what about you? Will you sleep here?”

“No, it would be illogical to leave you by yourself after what has happened”

“But then you’d have to stay awake for me again”

“I can use the time for meditation”

“Oh okay” she gave a nod “But I can’t believe you’re fine with this”

“As I have assured you several times, Vulcans do not need as much sleep or rest as humans do” she managed a weak smile. Upon his prompt, she took a seat on her bed and waited until the security guards came to drag Zach away.

“Okay then, let’s go. But wait I need something” she walked to the nightstand and took her private PADD, pressing it against her chest as if her life depended on it, then took her pajama bottoms as well, draping them over her forearm, before she got her toothbrush. “Now I’m ready” her boyfriend nodded and led her back to his quarters “Uh thanks by the way… for helping me. I know, it probably was logical and necessary but still thanks. Also thanks for being here for me”

“I do hope that my presence will help you”

“It surely will” she gave a nod and placed the PADD on his bed “Well I guess I have to get changed?” she said, not wanting to tell him she’d rather if he left. She was sure that she wouldn’t care in a different situation but right now she couldn’t undress in front of someone.

“You may use the bathroom”

“What if someone’s in there?” she asked and he raised an eyebrow “What? You’ve got a whole bathroom to yourself?” she pouted “I’ve got to share ‘mine’ with five other women. But hey, I now have a nice bathroom to go when the other one’s occupied”

“Feel free to do so if you wish”

“You’re not against it?”

“I do not spend much time in the bathroom, thus there is no reason that speaks against the suggestion”

“Wow” she nodded “Actually I was joking. But maybe I’ll take you up on that offer. Like when I need to be alone on the shower”

“I understand”

“But now I need to get changed” she said, slightly lifting her arm with her trousers over it.

\- oO0Oo -

Although she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to sleep just now, she slipped under the sheets of his bed and propped up her head

“Will you join me?”

“I can sit with you if this is what you are referring to” she nodded

“Please” he took a seat on the edge of the bed and she reached onto the nightstand to retrieve her PADD and started a game. “Sorry if I’m playing a game but it helps me calm down… usually I only play it when I’m really upset or so. But when I was younger I used to play it every day”

“May I inquire the content of this game?”

“It’s not spectacular, I have virtual pets and need to take care of them. Feed them, train them, go walkies and so on. At first you only get some normal stuff like cats and dogs. With time you can unlock other species such as bears, crocodiles or giraffes. Or even fantasy or alien creatures”

“I cannot see a reason why someone would keep a crocodile as a pet”

“Well me neither. At least in real life” she smiled when she saw her pets “Oh dear, I haven’t fed you in months. Of course you’re hungry. Hello there, Blacky, Spike and Jimmie” she grinned when she remembered why she had named them like this. “Damn, I really miss Blacky” she said and regretted not having taken her cat onto the ship. On the other hand, Blacky probably felt more comfortable with her parents than on a ship. “Well then I just need to play with virtual Blacky more…” she stroked the virtual cat and fed him a treat. Then she looked at her boyfriend “I didn’t even remember I have unlocked dragons” she said and fed Spike, her blue dragon. “Even though I played so much at some point in the past years”

“Why was that? After all you have stated to only play this game when you are felling unwell in the past years?”

“Yeah. So I’ve spent quite a lot of time on that game in my second year, after everything that had happened when the new semester started” she looked at him. “You know, at times I’m still mad at you that you left me in that situation, when I needed you the most”

“I am aware of this and you have my word that I will never again leave you to deal with something alone”

“Thanks” she smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.

\- oO0Oo -

Although Spock had locked the door someone managed to sneak in. Carissa didn’t recognize the figure and she tried to warn her boyfriend who was sitting some feet away and meditating. But she only saw how the intruder knocked him out with a nerve pinch and then came towards the bed. Suddenly she recognized him. It wasn’t Zach as she had imagined but Finn. How did he even get onto the ship? She squeezed her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep, hoping he would leave her alone. Of course he didn’t and he shook her shoulder and started saying her name. She winced what made him shake her fiercer, then, without a warning she shot up and tried to push him away.

“Go away, leave me alone!” she yelled and tried to get up to run but she was held back

“Carissa, please, I need you to calm down” she recognized the voice

“Spock” she breathed, digging her fingers into his arms. “What about Finn? How-how did he…”

“Carissa, you were having nightmares”

“B-but” she looked around and only stopped when her boyfriend placed a hand on her cheek

“I assure you that no one could enter this room while it is locked. In the highly improbable case someone succeeded, he would not have been able to get to you since I would have stopped the intruder”

“But weren’t you meditating?”

“I was. I assume that you were trying to imply that I would not have noticed if someone was here?”

“Well yes, I thought so, as if you were in a trance like state when you meditate but I’m quite sure you’ll tell me I was wrong” she mumbled as she sat up and wrapped an arm around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck

“Your final suggestion is right. Meditation does not impede our perception in any way. Thus, I have been able to notice your uncomfortableness when you were having your nightmare” she nodded

“I’m sorry”

“What do you apologize for?”

“Interrupting your meditation”

“Carissa” he said softly, stroking her hair “I cannot put my wellbeing over yours in such a situation. Furthermore, I have given you my word that I will support you in any manner possible” she smiled and snuggled closer.

“That’s incredibly sweet of you” then she looked up and tried to peck his lips but to her dismay he pulled away

“Carissa, I do not think it is a fortunate idea if we kiss so shortly after the incidents in your quarters” she placed a hand on his cheek

“I know you’re worried about me and my wellbeing… but I’m fine. Besides, the best way to forget what he did is to pretend as if nothing had happened. At least as long as I am fine with it”

“Is your decision final?”

“Aren’t you the one who always says digging into something is unnecessary because people don’t say something they’re not willing to do?”

“Am I right to assume that this is a yes?”

“Of course it is” she cupped his face “I love you, Spock, and I trust you” he placed a hand over hers and moved it to his lips whereupon she leant closer to place a kiss on his lips after pulling their hands away. After a couple of seconds he pulled her closer and kissed her back. Yet he seemed more careful than earlier this evening, so she decided to show him that she really was fine with this and deepened the kiss. After a while, she sat down in his lap and dug her hand into his hair.

\- oO0Oo -

When she woke up it surprised her that Spock was lying in the bed beside her, even more so when she realized that he still was asleep. She smiled when she remembered how he had always insisted it wasn’t correct to spend the night in the same bed but was happy he stayed anyway. She only hoped he wouldn’t regret it later on. Knowing it would wake him up if she moved too much she decided to lie still until he woke up himself. But as it seemed she either wasn’t able to do so or he woke up himself shortly after.

“Morning” she mumbled as she turned around to face him.

“I apologize”

“What for?” she propped herself up and looked down at him “And don’t you dare saying it is because you’ve spent the night in the same bed as me. It wasn’t even the first time, if you remember. You once held me in your arms for half a night, after the incidents with Khan”

“Then I would like to withdraw the apology” she chuckled.

“Granted” when he sat up, she did the same and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Carissa, I ought to get ready for my shift”

“Oh right, you start earlier than we do” she nodded “I don’t want to hold you up” she left the bed “Do you want to use the shower? Otherwise I’d go”

“Feel free to do so”

“Okay”

“Since I will have left by the time you return I want to inform you that you should come to the bridge once you are ready”

“Sure” she nodded and tried her best to smile although she knew what this would be about. A part of her didn’t want to deal with Zach right now, but she knew the sooner they got over with this the better. She only hoped he’d have to leave the ship as soon as possible. Since she had only her pajama top with her, she decided to borrow one of Spock’s uniforms for today and then left for the bridge. Spock got up when he saw her entering “I uh… didn’t lock the door. I hope you don’t mind”

“Not at all”

“Good morning” Jim greeted her with a cup in his hands. “I’ve been told you’d come to visit us today… however something tells me it’s not something good?”

“No” she shook her head “It’s about… Zacharias”

“Your superior, Mr Macho?”

“Yeah”

“Did he try to hit on you again?”

“He um…. did a little bit more than that” Jim looked around

“Sulu, you have the conn. Let’s go” he walked to the turbolift and Carissa followed him, not even surprised that Spock did so as well. When they arrived at Jim’s office, she told him what had happened when she entered her quarters yesterday. The Captain’s mien got darker and darker, then he slammed his hand down on the button to activate the communicator and ordered that Zach was brought here as soon as possible “I’m terribly sorry this happened. But I assure you that he will be gone in the next handful hours”

“Captain, may I remind you that we will reach neither a Federation planet with an outpost nor a Starbase within the next 26.84 hours?”

“I wouldn’t have known it that exactly but that’s not even my plan. You know, an old friend once showed me a trick; you just put the person you want off the ship in an escape pod and send it off. There’s this Class M Planetoid nearby, right? We’ll just tell Starfleet to come and pick him up. So we’re rid of him earlier, I suppose that’s what you want too, right?” he looked at his First Officer and Carissa did the same.

“I agree that it would be more appealing to have him removed from the Enterprise as early as possible. However, I would prefer to deliver him in person and ensure myself that he will be held responsible for his deeds”

“Logical as always, Spock” Jim chuckled “Alright then, off to the base it is” two security guards arrived a short time later with Zach in tow. Carissa didn’t even dare to look at him but she felt a lot better when her boyfriend stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her back. She looked up at him and leaned her head against his side, prompting him to pull her slightly closer. His eyes were fixed on the Lieutenant who was being shouted at by Jim. “And you know what? It serves you damn right she hit you in the face”

“This is not quite correct” Spock said “In reality, I have been the one to hit him” Jim looked at him and raised his eyebrows

“You? Okay, it does make sense. Guess that did piss you off quite a lot”

“For once you are correct about my emotions”

“Ha” he turned back to the Head of the lab “Well even better he’s been the one. Believe me, I’d knock you down too if there weren’t those damned regulations, but I am certain that Spock would love to give you a kick in the ass, after all he is her boyfriend”

“Although you are right about both your statements, I cannot afford to lose control like this again”

“Oh but you’d have every right to. My respects, man, I’d be so beating the shit outta him if she was my girlfriend”

“I am certain you would” despite everything Carissa felt herself smiling as she leaned closer to the Vulcan who glanced down at her and gently started rubbing his thumb on her back. “Captain, I think it would be in Carissa’s interest to finish this as quickly as possible since his presence seems to make her uncomfortable”

“Sure” Jim said as he glared back at the Lieutenant “You heard him. And you won’t just be leaving his office quickly but the ship as well. We’ll make sure you get accused for this and I hope you get what you deserve. Take him away” she breathed out in relief when he was brought out. “Now to you” she looked back to the Captain “I think it’s better if you’re checked up in Sickbay” she nodded

“I suppose so”

“Good. Spock, you’re free to go with her if you want. And I’d like you to take care of the report about this whole matter” he agreed “Is there anything you need, Carissa? I’ll tell Bones to excuse you from work today. Take the day off and relax a little. I’ll try to find a suitable replacement for Duncan today so that you guys can continue your work as usual” she nodded

“Thank you, Sir”

“You’re welcome, Commander” he grinned and she frowned

“Why?” he pointed at her sleeves and she realized the two stripes on it “Oh” she smiled and rolled the sleeves up that the stripes weren’t visible anymore “Better?”

“I probably wasn’t the one who was bothered by it…” he said “But they do suit you. Hell, I expect you to be at least Lieutenant by the time we return”

“Me too” she agreed

“Well then, feel free to leave” she nodded

“Thank you, Captain”

“Sure thing” he nodded at her and then she left the room with Spock following her.

“So uh… do you want to come with me or do you want to go back to the bridge?”

“Although the second option would be more logical, I will accompany you should it make you feel better”

“I guess so. I somehow don’t want to be alone today. There has to be something I could do…”

“You may stay in my quarters and continue the game from yesterday if you wish”

“That’s nice of you… but maybe I’ll go to work anyway. Unless Leonard detects some kind of PTSD and declares me unable to do so”

“Carissa, are you certain that you want to return to the laboratory today?”

“At least I won’t be alone then. Besides… _he_ will not be there”

“Then I respect this decision” she nodded

“Okay”

“Look who it is” Leonard said when he saw them enter “The Beauty and the Beast”

“Come on, Leo, be nice” she warned him

“Alright but only if you promise your pet won’t bite”

“If you don’t stop talking about him like this I might bite you myself”

“Okay, deal. What brings you here?”

“I… you should check me up”

“Why? Experiment gone wrong?”

“No…” while she was trying to find the words, Spock explained the whole matter and she could see how the doctor’s mien got darker with each sentence.

“I see. Onto the bed with you. Are you staying here or what?” he asked Spock

“This is up to Carissa to decide” she took his hand and squeezed it

“I know you’ll want to know what the results anyway” she said “Besides, it feels good to know I’m not alone”

“I’m here too, you know…” Leonard said feigning hurt “Anyways, how did you start? Apart from this whole issue now? Settled onto the ship well?”

“I guess so. I got used to it. And going into warp doesn’t want to make me vomit all the time anymore or the sudden turbulences all the time”

“Good sign. Took me quite long to get used to that as well” he started the examination and they didn’t talk much until they were done “You’re fine, though you’ll probably get a few bruises. There’s not much I can do against this but I can excuse you from work if you want”

“Actually… I’d like to go, so I can at least do something”

“Alright. But I’ll set up an excuse anyway and if it gets too much you leave, is that clear?”

“Okay” she nodded.

\- oO0Oo -

Two days later the whole issue was resolved. Zach was fired from Starfleet and sent back to Earth while the Enterprise continued their journey. Spock insisted that Carissa spent another two nights in his quarters that she wouldn’t be alone to deal with possible nightmares. Jim also managed to find a new Head for the bio lab, Renaud Dutoit, with whom she already got along quite well. Somehow, she had the feeling that her boyfriend kept stopping by at the lab more often than usual, as if he wanted to check on her. Unless, of course, they had more data or results he had to collect or deliver. Not that she minded though, she was glad to see him more often again, even if he didn’t speak to her. At least not if he didn’t need something from her that had to do with work. However, he also contacted her outside work at times, to spend more time with her.

Her first away mission came rather unexpected. She was having a look at cells of a piscine animal when the bio lab got contacted by the bridge.

“It’s for you, Carissa” she was told and with a surprised frown, she went to the communication device that was integrated in the wall.

“Junior Lieutenant Wiley, yes?”

“Lieutenant Uhura, from the bridge. The Captain wants you in conference room 4 on deck 3 as soon as possible. We need you on a planet mission”

“Really?” she smiled “That’s great. I’ll be there, Lieutenant”

“Very well. Uhura out” with a grin she turned to her superior to inform him

“Of course, off with you” he nodded his head towards the door “Gino, please when you’re done with your analysis, please continue Carissa’s”

“Sure” Carissa nodded and left. She entered the conference room and took a seat beside Carol Marcus, who nodded at her. Shortly after, Jim came with Uhura and another woman in tow.

“Seems like we’re almost everyone now?” he said, taking the seat closest to the door. “Lieutenant McDowell is still missing” not much later, someone from engineering entered. Carissa soon recognized that this mission probably had something to do with women. “Good” Jim said as everyone had taken a seat. “As some of you might know, we’ve been seized by some kind of tractor beam that comes from Malmagua, the planet we’ve wanted to pass by. Seems like the Malmagi don’t want us near them. We’ve tried to contact them but they refused to negotiate, unless it’s face-to-face. Unfortunately, they were very specific that they want no males down there so it’s all up to you. But if you change your mind and prefer to stay on the ship that’s alright” no one said something “Perfect” he contacted the bridge and asked his First Officer if they had received the landing coordinates yet.

“Negative, Captain. The Malmagi have asked us to give them the coordinates of our transporter room so that they can beam the landing party down themselves”

“Alright, let Scotty know what to do when we’re ready”

“Yes Captain. May I note that the fact they wish to talk to females solely suggests that they plan to achieve something on their own? I calculate the possibility that they will defraud us to 86.17 percent”

“Yeah Spock, we get it, you’re worried but I’m sure they’re all strong women and can defend themselves. That’s why we’re sending our best”

“Captain, as you surely know, this statement is not entirely correct. This will be Junior Lieutenant Wiley’s first mission of this kind”

“Spock she will be fine, I promise. They all will be fine” 

“Your word cannot guarantee their safety”

“Why don’t you do everyone a favor and shut up? Don’t upset them further with your doom-mongering” he ended that call and turned back to the women. “Everyone ready to go? We’ll get you two comms, a tricorder and universal translators” once they had their devices, the Captain left them to go back to the bridge whereas the women went to the transporter room. Shortly after they went onto the pad, they were transported down to the planet. It felt different than the beaming she knew and despite the situation she was glad to be on a planet after weeks in space. They were greeted by humanoid looking beings that had red skin and three black eyes but neither nose nor ears. Their arms looked tentacle-like with three fingers or better said smaller tentacles at each end. Hoping they wouldn’t notice, Carissa tried to run a tricorder scan on them and hid behind Lieutenant Marcus. The alien closest to them said something that was supposed to be a greeting. Uhura stepped forward and greeted them in return, telling them why they were here.

“We know why you are here. Come with us” they followed the Malmagi and his two companions walked behind them. If she was honest, Carissa didn’t feel well at all. She felt like a prisoner who was taken to their cell. But they were only led to some kind of conference room and asked to have a seat. There was already one alien sitting at the other end for the room, his skin darker than the others. She had a feeling this was something like a higher person. “This is Wo’zg, our ruler. You can tell him about your wishes” they nodded and again Uhura took the lead, informing Wo’zg that they were held by the tractor beam and couldn’t leave.

“We did not mean to hold you back. But we do not want intruders on our planet”

“I understand that. So we would be glad if you could deactivate it and we can leave. This would be in everyone’s interest I suppose” Lieutenant Marcus said.

“I do not think we can just let you leave”

“But if you keep us here, you will have ‘intruders’, Sir” Carissa said 

“This device does not translate well enough. I wanted to say that we gain nothing if you leave”

“What is it that you want?” Uhura asked

“Your species is interesting. We allow you to leave if one of you stays here”


	3. Girl Power

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: death

The women exchanged a look.

“You want what?”

“One of you stays here. Four can leave”

“What if we refuse?”

“You all stay here and your ship cannot leave. Finally, it will crash down” the woman from engineering opened her communicator “No chance to reach your ship. Not unless we allow it”

“But we should let them know about your conditions” Uhura said after thinking for a while, Wo’zg agreed and pointed his arm to a console at the wall. The one who had brought them here ushered them towards it and touched the screen and then pushed three buttons before he let them know it was ready. 

“Enterprise, Ensign Hess here”

“It’s Lieutenant Uhura”

“Uhura” they heard Jim’s voice “Thank God you’re alright. We’ve lost your signal and tried to reach you but no chance”

“No, they have some kind of shield that blocks any communication they won’t allow” Spock added this probably also was what prevented the ship from leaving.

“Does that mean you’ve been successful? Will they let us leave?”

“Not directly…” Uhura admitted “They have one condition…”

“That is?”

“One of us who are down here has to stay”

“Stay? For what?”

“They didn’t tell us but I assume it’s not something we want…”

“For scientific purposes probably” Carissa thought loudly

“Indeed” 

“And… have you made a decision yet? Or do you want someone else to come down?”

“I doubt they would allow that” Spock said.

“Well, what do you suggest we do? And you better not start your sentence with ‘Logically,’ or anything like that” Wo’zg remarked they had some time to come to a decision. Then he gave his minion an order to end the communication “You hang on, we’ll get…” Jim managed to shout before the connection was gone. Then Wo’zg told them they would be brought to a ‘guestroom’ and should let them know when they had made a decision. When they arrived, Carissa was surprised to actually find something that looked like a hotel room instead of a cell. But once the Malmagi left, they saw that there was an energy field at the door that prevented them from escaping.

“What shall we do?” Carissa said “I mean… one of us probably has to stay because it wouldn’t be fair if the whole ship can’t leave because of us. They can’t stay in orbit forever”

“My thinking too” Carol Marcus agreed and sat down on one of the beds.

“I suppose I’m the oldest and could stay” the engineer said.

“But my job is the most useless. I can be replaced the easiest” Carissa muttered

“No, this is not about who is most useless…. You’re the youngest, aren’t you? It wouldn’t be right”

“It’s not right any of us has to stay”

“Maybe we should draw by lot?” the third Lieutenant Carissa didn’t know suggested

“That would be fair” she agreed.

“But maybe we should wait… I’m certain the others will try to rescue us” Uhura said “I know the Captain, he wouldn’t let any of us stay behind”

“Yes but I fear that will get them into trouble as well” Carol remarked “We should find a way to escape”

“And how?”

“Window?” Carissa suggested, pointing at it “And maybe we can switch off the field that guards the door?”

“I’ll try” McDowell said and walked to the door, examining it carefully while Carissa went to the window. Quickly she realized that there was no way to open it and even hitting the translation-device against it was of no use.

“Maybe if we all kicked against it?” Uhura asked

“Even if it would work… we’re still like a hundred feet above the surface… I doubt we’d survive a fall”

“That makes sense”

“Hey, someone help me please” the Lieutenant who was examining the door shouted. As it seemed, she had found something like a hidden panel that could be opened. “There we go” she said after Carol helped her to tear it away “Give me a moment I might be able to deactivate it” Carissa nodded

“Great. I’ll make sure no one’s looking” she went closer to the entrance to see anyone approaching immediately “What shall we do if we manage to get out?”

“Find the shield that holds the ship, disable it and leave that planet” Uhura said, trying to contact the Enterprise again “Still no signal…. If we at least knew what the others are doing”

“Well it can’t be much” Carissa answered.

“Can we help something?” Uhura asked the engineer who shook her head

“It would take ages to try and explain it, I don’t even get most of it myself…”

“Oh alright”

“And of course I don’t have the right tools with me… I really hope this works” she pulled out a little casket from her pocket and retrieved a little tool. Then Carissa looked away, scanning the corridor again. Suddenly there was a loud buzzing sound and she saw how the engineer collapsed

“Lynn!” Carol shouted and they all hurried to their crewmate to see how she was doing

“She’s dead” Uhura said bitterly and they all were silent for some seconds, not able to believe it. In fact, this was the first time Carissa had seen a dead body this close and she swallowed. This wasn’t going to end well.

“That must have been one hell of an electric shock”

“Indeed. So uh… what now? That seemed like our only way to get out” 

“We can still wait until they come to get us and try to escape them”

“What do we even know about them? Maybe they’ve got powers we don’t know about…”

“We couldn’t really study them a lot” Uhura admitted “Spock tried but all we found out is that they’re humanoid”

“Damn. And it makes no sense if we try to defend us and then we’re all in trouble… because one victim is enough. Well two” Carol pointed out, glancing at their fallen friend.

“Wait a moment… I think I got a solution” Carissa said

“That is?”

“Put her on the bed and tuck her up” the others listened and they all helped 

“Now, what’s the plan?”

“We say we have decided that the first one to fall asleep will stay here and the others can leave…”

“She isn’t sleeping”

“We can’t know that” she said and winked. “Besides, Wo’zg words were ‘one of you stays the other four can go…’ it was never specified that the one who stays has to be alive”

“Clarissa, you’re a genius”

“Her name is Carissa” Uhura corrected, nodding at her, making her smile broader “that could work”

“But maybe we should wait a little before we call them… like an hour or two”

“Okay. And what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“I don’t know… talk? Or play a game?”

“Just something to distract ourselves….” Carissa added “And let’s hope they’re not watching us, because then our plan has already failed”

“Please don’t ruin your perfect plan already”

\- oO0Oo -

As agreed, they called for the Malmagi about an hour later to tell them that they had decided who should stay

“Who will stay?”

“Her” Carissa said, pointing at the bed. “We agreed that the first of us who falls asleep will stay. One stays, four leave, that is the deal, right?”

“It is. Come” suppressing a sigh of relief they followed the alien until they were in the room where Wo’zg was again. This time Uhura told the story of who would stay and why

“Good. You can go back to your ship”

“Thank you. And will you let us go? You will deactivate whatever prevents us from leaving the orbit?”

“Yes. You have to word of Wo’zg”

“Alright. Thank you for your hospitality and we apologize for all the inconvenience” Uhura said before they were led to what must be their transporter room again. One of their two accompaniers went to the console and tapped something while the other stood there and watched them. They could step onto the pad but then the door opened and an almost pink colored Malmagi entered.

“They have deceived us”

“What?” the one at the console asked and Carissa hoped that the rest of their crew hadn’t tried something

“She is not alive” no, she corrected herself, they had found out about their little lie

“Who are you talking about?” Carissa inquired, deciding to play dumb was the best option.

“You have known. The one that stays is dead.”

“She said she’s going to sleep; we didn’t know she is dead” she insisted

“One of you will stay”

“No, one stays four leave. That was the deal. It was never said that the one who stays has to be alive! Your ruler gave us his word”

“And you have deceived us. You will be punished”

“Look, it’s what we agreed on. No one has said that she needs to be alive…. you should have been more specific. Besides we really didn’t know she died in her sleep.”

“You are dumb to believe we will accept that. You will all be punished”

“Leave them alone. This was my idea, so don't punish them too”

“We accept your wish” the one standing in the room wrapped two of his long fingers around her upper arm and pulled her from the pad. “The rest leave”

“Wait a second, you can’t just….” The rest of Uhura’s sentence was cut off when they were beamed back onto the ship. Only a second later Carissa realized what this meant for her. Her journey was over, if not her life. At least a life she wanted. Unless she could escape but she doubted she could get far anyway. She heard the Malmagi say something but since she didn’t have a translator, she had no idea what it was about. Then she was dragged in front of the console and she realized that they probably wanted something from her 

“I-I’m sorry. No translation device. I don’t understand” she explained, giving a slow shrug, hoping it would be a gesture they understood. The one holding her pushed her forward against the console and the one beside her pressed some buttons and she suddenly heard Ensign Hess’ voice “Oh” she said

“Hello?” Hess asked

“Hello uhm, it’s Junior Lieutenant Wiley” apparently Jim must have asked to talk to her because shortly after she heard his voice.

“Junior Lieutenant? Are you still down on that planet?”

“Uh… yes and they wanted me to contact you but I’ve got no idea why, Sir…” somehow she had a feeling they wouldn’t just let her say goodbye.

“But why are you still down there? Why were only three people beamed up? What happened?” one of the Malmagi squeezed her arm painfully and pointed at the small screen on the console hat showed the silhouette of the Enterprise and wiped a finger over it 

“Wait I think one of them is trying to tell me something…” she looked at him “Are you trying to destroy them. Boom?” she asked, trying a gesture that looked like an explosion

“They’re what? Spock, tell me are they… Spock?” it was silent for a couple of seconds “Oh damn that goblin”

“Why what’s wrong?”

“Left his post without a word. Chekov, take over I need to know if they’re charging weapons or something”

“Da, Keptain” the one that tried to show her something, and wiped his finger over the screen again, this time slower and the silhouette of the Enterprise disappeared from it.

“Or maybe they want you to leave? Ah I think they’re trying to tell you that the field that keeps you in place is gone”

“Chekov?”

“Yes, ze energy shield is gone”

“Good. We gotta contact Scotty to ask how things...” she didn’t hear the rest when the Malmagi talked again and tore her away from the console.

“Oi!” she protested “You could be a bit friendlier. I know I don’t understand you but there are friendly gestures you could use” she huffed, feeling lonelier than ever because she probably wouldn’t meet someone she could talk to in quite a while. She looked down and wished she had not come here. With her luck she should have known that something was bound to happen. But she knew one thing. She wouldn’t give up. One day, there would be a possibility to escape. Maybe it was good to stay here and get to know this place. Maybe she’d even get company or maybe they already had another prisoner. She heard the aliens talk and shortly after she was slammed against a wall and groaned in pain. The one holding her was talking to her, not sounding very happy “Uh did I do something wrong? I’m sorry but I don’t understand.” the Malmagi only put one of his tentacle-like fingers onto her cheek “Hey is that some kind of flirting for you or what? ‘Learn more about your species’ my ass. Or are you trying to use some kind of mind control? Well that definitely isn’t working. Maybe it only works with your species?” suddenly her tongue started to feel a little numb “Or is that some nel…nerve venom?” now the other alien said something and the tentacle from her face was removed. Slowly she breathed out in relief, on the other hand she had no idea what would happen next. The one that had her pressed against the wall wrapped two fingers around her arm again and pulled her with him and she didn’t even find herself protesting. She wondered if this had to do with whatever he did when he pressed the tentacle to her face. For the first time she asked herself if it even was a male. She had just suggested it, due to the deep voice. Maybe all of them were women and that was why they only wanted to talk to females…. Suddenly there was something like an alarmed cry from one of the Malmagi that had stayed in the room she came from but the one holding her wouldn’t let her turn around and yanked her forward. At least he (she had decided it was a male) did so before he froze and collapsed beside her. Not thinking twice she tried to remove the tentacles around her arm but it seemed like they were stuck to the fabric of her shirt. 

“Junior Lieutenant” she whipped around and a huge smile appeared on her face when she recognized her boyfriend

“Spock! How-how did you get here?” he told her that the Malmagi had created something like a hole in their shield that allowed the Enterprise to leave but they also could beam someone down but not up onto the ship so he decided to go and get her “Wow that’s sweet” she pecked his cheek. “Thanks. But could you help me? I can’t get his tentacles off me” she gave them another tug and then Spock tried to help but all he succeeded was to rip her sleeve apart “Oh well that works too. Just rip it off”

“Are you certain?”

“Do it, I don’t want to take him with us if possible…” he carefully tore away the sleeve just above the tentacles then pulled her into an embrace “You’ve got no idea how glad I am to see you. I know this probably isn’t how I should behave around you while on duty but who cares?” she mumbled “I thought I’d have to stay here forever” he said nothing and leaned his forehead against hers before he let go of her

“We had better leave. Do you know something about Lieutenant McDowell’s whereabouts?”

“You mean the engineer? Well uh… she tried to hot-wire the device that locked us into a room but she got an electric shock or something that killed her” she said, feeling her stomach turn.

“I understand” he held out his hand to her “I cannot say how much time a stun will leave them unconscious and it would be preferable if we left by the time they regain consciousness” 

“But you just said that people can’t beam away from here?”

“The fact that the three Lieutenants have been transported back onto the ship proves that it is possible”

“Oh, we just need to deactivate something or enable transporting?”

“Correct” 

“Okay, let’s go” she almost pulled him with her and stepped in front of the console. “Okay, so one of them stood here and…” she let her hand hover over the buttons and screen. “I guess he tapped the screen twice. Beep beep- no three times- beep. Then uh….” she moved her hand to the right “Boop. Hmm. Probably one of these” she said pointing at a group of small grey buttons. When she looked up, she saw that Spock wasn’t beside her anymore. “Spock? Sir?” she asked and stepped away from the console too and found him kneeling next to a Malmagi on the ground, obviously in a mind-meld “Oh, right” she muttered to herself. That probably was the better solution. Then her boyfriend got up and looked at her

“Did you try to tell me something?”

“Uhm I tried to tell you where the Malmagi stood when he beamed us up but I guess your method was more effective” she admitted with a shrug. He nodded and stood in front of the console “Can I help you something? Or do you want to give me the phaser so that I can stun whoever tried to stop us?” without a word he handed it to her before his hands flew over the console. Not even having an inkling what he did, Carissa stared at him in awe. “And?” she asked when he looked like he was done. He only pulled out a communicator “I don’t think this will work… unless you managed to fully deactivate the shield…” she corrected herself and had to realize that this was the case because someone answered the call. Spock told them that they were ready to be beamed up

“Jus’ two? I thought we’re still missing two lasses”

“Correct but unfortunately Lieutenant McDowell has lost her life”

“Oh” there was silence for a while “I’m locking onto yer coordinates and beam ye up”

“Thanks” Carissa said and placed a hand on her boyfriend’s arm. Just a couple of seconds later she was back on board the Enterprise and Spock immediately contacted the bridge to let them know what had happened.

“You got her? That’s good. What about McDowell?”

“She did not make it”

“I’m sorry to hear that… Sulu, I think it’s better if we leave right now, before they realize what we did and prevent us from leaving again.” they went into warp and for the first time, Carissa was grateful for this because she was happy to be as far away from that planet as possible. “Carissa are you here too?”

“Yes, I am” 

“Good, I’d like you and the other three remaining people of the landing party to meet me in the briefing room for a mission report. As for you Spock, I had never thought I would need to have a word about duties and abandoning your post with you”

“Captain, I am fully aware that I should not have left the bridge without consulting you but by the time I had explained you what I was trying to do, it could have been too late and I therefore accept any disciplinary action you deem appropriate” he also told the Captain what he found out about the shield and that he saw a possibility to beam someone down onto the planet in the time until the shield was fully reactivated. Even if it just had been opened to enable communication with the Enterprise.

“But how did you find out about this in the short time this ‘hole’ was created in the shield?”

“I have not. I initialized scans and analyses of the shield ever since we have heard of the Malmagi’s condition to let us go and have reached the conclusion that such a puncture would allow us to transport someone onto the planet even before the three Lieutenants were brought back aboard”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was not entirely sure about my assumption and I have not expected them to be beamed back onto the Enterprise that early and without any notice. Therefore I had to act quickly since I knew we only had a minute time frame for the transportation of the rescue party and I was unable to determine how many could be beamed down simultaneously or whether or not it was possible to transport the landing party onto the Enterprise.”

“I see. Thanks though but I think we should discuss that in peace and in private. Junior Lieutenant, you should go to Sickbay and get checked up before we meet. The other three should be there too”

“Okay, Captain” she nodded. He ended the communication and she looked at her boyfriend “Will you walk with me until we reach the Sickbay?”

“If it is your wish” she nodded and smiled before thanking Scotty for getting them both up safely

“My pleasure, lassie, I’m glad to have ye back aboard” she smiled and then followed her boyfriend

“And thanks too. For doing everything to get us out of there and actually coming to get me” she pecked his cheek and took his hand, intertwining their fingers “Do you mind?”

“I suppose not” they continued their way in silence. When they arrived at the Sickbay, she gave his hand another squeeze before she let go of it and entered the room 

“See you around” she said after turning back to him.

“Ah look, another lost sheep has returned” Leonard said and bleated, making her sigh. 

“Do I need to suffer a new comment each time I come here?” she nodded at Uhura who was seated on the bed Leonard stood next to.

“Laughing is the best medicine”

“Bad thing your ‘jokes’ want to make me vomit”

“I bet it’s your hobgoblin’s fault. I thought you were more fun. Anyways, get onto that bed so I can do what I must. Uhura, you can leave.”

“What you must… as if it’s something bad”

“Of course” he started the examination “Anything special happened? I mean did they try to hurt you?”

“Well one of them pressed a tentacle like finger to my face and then my tongue felt strangely numb for some seconds…” she admitted.

“Let me have a look” he examined her face again “Good news, whatever it was that it did, it seems to be over now”

“Unless it doesn’t leave traces”

“No that’s not how you should think” he said, raising his forefinger

“Good as you say…” she mumbled 

“What happened to your sleeve?”

“Oh one of them held me there and ripping it off was the only way to make him let go of me because his tentacles someone were stuck to the fabric”

“Alright. Well, you seem okay. Off you go, I heard the Captain’s waiting for you”

“I think he’s probably occupied with Spock”

“Why that?”

“Apparently he left his post without a word to come and get me”

“You’re trying to tell me our Spock neglected his duty for you?”

“Kind of” he wiggled his eyebrows at her

“Well then, off you go” she nodded and left Sickbay where she met Uhura.

“I wanted to thank you for what you did”

“You mean that I told them to let you go? It was the only right thing to do because it was my fault… though I didn’t expect them to react that harshly and actually pull me back”

“I’m glad you managed to escape. But how?”

“Spock came to get me” she said with a smile.

“Then that’s why he ran past us when we were sent to Sickbay” she chuckled “I’ve rarely ever seen him like that…” she looked at her “Do tell; are you two - I don’t know - like a thing?”

“Yeah. He’s my boyfriend” she admitted

“I knew it. I knew there was something”

“How did you find out?”

“His behavior during the mission with Khan and Admiral Marcus was pretty suspect after he realized you were on that ship. And now it also makes sense why Nero wanted you on his ship… he was trying to kill you”

“Mhm” she gave a nod.

“But that means you must have gotten together when he still was your professor”

“We did. That’s why we’ve been keeping everything a secret”

“What about now? I mean, most people still don’t know”

“No idea… he’s probably just thinking that there’s no need to tell everyone, as long as the Captain knows. But it’s not a problem if someone finds out”

“That sounds like him. It would be unnecessary and irrelevant to inform us about the relationship”

“Most likely”

“Who else knows?”

“On the ship? Well Jim, Leonard and maybe Scotty is starting to figure it out. And probably Ben, but only because he saw that he accompanied me at the party at the end of the year. But I’m not sure, he never mentioned anything, neither did someone else”

“Okay that aren’t many”

“I know. But I don’t really care who knows or who doesn’t” they arrived at the conference room where the Captain wanted to meet them but he wasn’t there yet. But the other two Lieutenants were present and expressed their relief that Carissa was back as well.

“How did you get away?” the Lieutenant whose name she still didn’t know asked

“Commander Spock found a way to beam himself onto the planet and stunned my attackers before he managed to deactivate the shield so that Scotty could beam us back aboard”

“Forgive me the question….” Lieutenant Marcus said “But could it be that there is something between the two of you? The Commander and you?” Carissa smiled

“Sure. We’re dating”

“You’re dating a Vulcan?” the third Lieutenant asked

“So what?” Uhura said “He is a good person and I have seen myself that he does care about her” Carol nodded

“It’s true. I’ve seen him when you were dying on the mission with Khan. When he broke the mind meld, there were tears on his face”

“So that was why he was worried about us going down there”

“I’m sure he was concerned about all of us. And not just the landing party since the fate of the ship was in our hands….” Carissa said

“What kind of boyfriend is he?”

“I don’t even know what different kinds of boyfriends there can be”

“Well there’s the jokester, the macho, the romantic, the shy one…” she looked at Carol and frowned

“He’s none of those, really. I mean he is reserved, yes, but he can be romantic and passionate”

“Passionate as when you’re…”

“No” she said, shaking her head

“Oh okay, would have wondered me if you had gone that far. What’s the furthest you went?”

“Come on, leave her alone” Uhura interrupted “It’s their relationship and none of your concern. She probably doesn’t even know you so why should she tell you details about her relationship?” Carissa looked at the woman

“Thanks, Uhura” she smiled

“You can call me Nyota” Carissa smiled

“Thanks”

“Oi” she heard Jim shouting “Why does she get a first name the first time you’re talking and I still haven’t gotten it officially?”

“Because she wasn’t a complete jerk when we first met”

\- oO0Oo -

Despite the incidents on Malmagua Carissa wanted to go onto another away mission as soon as possible. Of course she knew she probably could just tell Jim or Spock but she didn’t want to take advantage of these relationships. But then, shortly after she had had her probation appraisal, she saw a possibility. Renaud was asked to accompany the landing party with someone else from the bio lab and Endrin, who he had chosen, got sick with a Nausicaan gastric disease. So Carissa asked her superior if he would take her instead.

“Unless of course you want someone who is more experienced”

“No, I think nothing speaks against you. It’s a lot less dangerous than your last mission because there is population, but not where we’ll go to. Come, let’s not let the others wait.”

“Okay” she nodded “Do I need to take anything with me?”

“No, I’ve got everything we need and we’ll get a tricorder when we meet the others”

“Alright” they went to the transporter room and met two people from the geology lab on the way. Somehow this relieved her because she was sure that this was solely a science mission where they had to collect samples just like during her tryout. Her face lit up when she saw her boyfriend in the transporter room, obviously waiting for them. Renaud almost pulled her towards him

“Commander, this is Junior Lieutenant Wiley. She has asked me to accompany us since Ensign Darvishi got sick. I hope you don’t mind”

“Not at all”

“I’ll have an eye on her because this is her first mission like this and make sure she does everything correctly”

“I doubt it will be necessary to supervise her work although I appreciate your offer to do so”

“Okay. Then I’ll just keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get lost”

“I would be much obliged”

“I can take care of myself” Carissa defended herself

“It was not my intention to imply you would not be capable to do so” she smiled

“I know you didn’t but I still can look after myself”

“Do you two know each other?” Renaud asked

“Yes uhm…” she looked at her boyfriend, not sure if she should tell the truth “He used to be my professor and we’re friends now” Spock raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Once everyone got their equipment, they were beamed onto the planet and they parted ways in groups of two, a geologist and a biologist together to collect data and samples for analyses. Carissa and her partner were on their way back when he dropped his tricorder when jumping over a crack in the surface

“Damn” he muttered looking down “We should get it back” also Carissa had a look and saw that it had landed on some kind of mountain ledge about five feet down “You’re thinner and lighter… I could hold you and you get it?”

“Okay” she nodded although she wasn’t convinced and didn’t really want to go down there but how could she say no? The geologist took her hand as she carefully started to climb down. Then her foot slipped and she lost hold of the crag and fell the last feet or two. Unfortunately, her hand slipped from her partner’s so that he couldn’t help her up

“Shit. Are you okay?”

“Guess so. A bit sore but fine. Hey, I’ve got it” she said, grabbing the tricorder “But how am I supposed to come back up?”

“Uh… Wait here, I’ll get help”

“What choice do I have?” she huffed but smiled anyway. “Oh no wait… there’s something like a stair a bit further away that leads down” she shouted “I’ll just get down there, maybe there’s some kind of exit or a place where I can meet the rest of you again”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. How are the others supposed to get me out?”

“Okay… good point, I’ve got no idea. Then I’ll tell them where you went”

“Sure”

“Be safe!” she gave a nod and looked up before she walked to the left where she had seen the stair. Although, it wasn’t really a staircase, at least not one that had been made by whoever lived on the planet. Nevertheless, she carefully climbed them down until she reached some kind of cave and she used the tricorder to make a record. Maybe it wasn’t too bad she had fallen into that crack she thought as she continued her way. That was until she stumbled over something and slithered down an acclivity for a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, it was too dark now to see anything and when she wanted to get up, she hit her head. She crouched down, carefully feeling her way through the darkness. As it seemed, the tricorder was gone, so she decided to search for an exit. Suddenly she heard something and she got a feeling that she wasn’t alone. Biting her lip she tried to be as quiet as possible, hoping that whatever was here would not notice her. Or that she could find out where it was. But the sounds got louder and suddenly she felt something poking into her chest. There was something like a shriek and not much later Carissa realized that whatever was here must have some friends with it because all of them emitted cries that sounded as if they were afraid.

“Hello” she said softly “You don’t need to be afraid… I just got lost. If you can show me a way outside I will be gone before you know it” at least they stopped shouting and seemed to discuss something in a language she didn’t understand. Something cold and rubberlike touched her hand making her wince. One of the beings seemed to be talking to her but of course she didn’t understand. Suddenly there were more rubbery things and tried to pull her with them. “Oh you want me to follow?” she said, wondering what the beings looked like. One thing was sure, they probably were quite small or else there couldn’t be so many of them in the narrow and low tunnel. After a while they seemed to reach where the beings wanted to go because they stopped. However, they seemed to want something from her and tried to lift her hands. “Do… you want me to do something?” she asked a bit confused.

“Buzi! Buzi! Lhed!” suddenly they seemed to be all around her and tried to lift her up. She frowned. If they wanted her to get up? Because they hadn’t carried her before.

“Shall I get up?” she asked and did so, whereupon she realized that this place was higher than the tunnel because she could almost stand if she ducked a little. The beings shouted at her but not in a threatening manner, more like they were encouraging her to do something. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what you want” she started to think. They wanted her to get up. Maybe there was something up there they wanted her to get? If only it wasn’t so dark… her hands began to pat the ceiling, hoping she’d find what it was. That was when she realized that there was a stone that seemed to be a bit loose and she tried to remove it, hoping it would give her some light. It wasn’t easy but finally she succeeded and a sunray the place. The little beings cheered and when Carissa looked down she saw that they looked like naked ocher-colored rabbits that walked on two legs that were about as tall as her knee. Apparently she was in the middle of the place they lived because there seemed to be over a hundred of them and it did look like they had some tools here too. They all looked up at her and started to cheer. “Oh that’s what you wanted… that stone must have fallen onto that hole and took your sunlight…” she chuckled when they started to hug her legs and each other once there wasn’t enough place around her anymore. “You’re welcome” she said “But uh…. I really should leave, you know, I’ve got friends too and they’re waiting for me somewhere. Do-do you know where I have to go?” she pointed at the hole she had just created, hoping they would understand what she meant. But they didn’t even seem to listen and only moved away from her when one of the ‘rabbits’ walked towards her. She figured this was their leader because everyone stepped aside so that it could pass. When it reached her, it hugged her leg too and removed a necklace made of a straw-like material from its neck and handed it to her

“Mi bíld tant. Kurb-cunndi tin mipt zirck, lhed“

“I didn’t get a word… but thank you” she said and only when the leader waved the necklace in front of her she realized that the being wanted her to take it “Oh that’s for me?” she said, taking it and she tried to put it on but it she couldn’t get it over her head, so she placed it on top of it like a crown “You wouldn’t happen to know where the exit is? To leave?” she pointed at her and moved two fingers over her outstretched hand to simulate walking. The leader emitted a strange scream and hugged her leg again “What’s that supposed to mean?” she frowned “Don’t you want me to leave?” she pointed at herself then to the ground “I stay?” they looked at her and cheered again “Okay I take that as a yes… the leader was pulling on her trousers and she slowly followed it to the wall where something like a throne stood. The being she had just decided to call Pips, patted it and looked at her “You want me to sit down?” she pointed at the throne and moved closer, Pips hurried away and she glanced at him before taking a seat. Now all the aliens (she wondered what they called themselves) sat down on the floor as well and stared up at her “Oh…” she said, realizing they obviously had just made her their queen. “Am I your new leader?” she pointed at Pips then at the necklace she wore as crown.

“Lhed” Pips said and the other’s repeated the word in a sing sang as if they were celebrating something. One of them hurried towards her and handed her something small and only at a second glance she realized that it must be an offspring.

“Oh I don’t think I should hold your baby” she said, looking down at the thumb-sized ocher-colored worm in her hand but when she looked back the alien was gone. She bit her lip and carefully handed it to Pips, hoping he or she knew what to do with the baby. Since she had no idea what to do, she started to tell them about herself and how she got here, after all they didn’t even understand so she wouldn’t violate any directive. “And that’s why I need to get back. My friends are out there” of course they didn’t understand but there still was this sympathetic look on their faces. “But they’ll probably need to come and get me…” she sighed wondering if they were already looking for her. After all she had told Rick to let the others know she’d meet them somewhere at the foot of the hill. But now that she came to think of it, she probably wouldn’t have reached this place anyway, at least not the way she took. “Oh. I’m Carissa, by the way” she said, then pointed at herself “Carissa” she repeated

“Kah-issa”

“Yes that’s right. Carissa” she pointed at herself again

“Moo” Pips said as he pointed at himself

“Carissa” she pointed to her chest, then at Moo “Moo?”

“Moo”. Kah-issa. Lhed” she pointed at herself

“Lhed?” she repeated, having heard the word quite many times now

“Kah-issa lhed” so this probably was their title they had given her, whatever it meant. She pointed back at Moo.

“Lhed?” she asked whereupon he pointed back at her and repeated the word. “But I can’t be your lhed… I can’t stay with you”

“Lhed” this was starting to get frustrating, they reminded her of a bunch of children who didn’t get anything. Again someone hurried towards her and she received a very small bowl

“For me? To eat” she pointed at her mouth

“Abu saplih” Moo explained. She took something out of the bowl and moved it to her mouth, glancing back at him again “Abu” he said and she just ate it. Then she wished she hadn’t because she realized it probably was just soil or whatever. It wasn’t disgusting but it wasn’t good either.

“Thank you” she said, placing the bowl back on the ground. One of them came towards her, hugged her leg and took the bowl away. She had to admit, she was starting to like them a lot.


End file.
